Financial Comparison: GrafTech International (EAF) versus Its Rivals

GrafTech International (NYSE:EAF) is one of 216 publicly-traded companies in the “Electrical Equipment” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare GrafTech International to related businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, profitability, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for GrafTech International and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GrafTech International	2	4	0	0	1.67
GrafTech International Competitors	2288	5167	7220	438	2.38

GrafTech International currently has a consensus target price of $10.00, suggesting a potential upside of 4.49%. As a group, “Electrical Equipment” companies have a potential upside of 53.78%. Given GrafTech International’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe GrafTech International has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares GrafTech International and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
GrafTech International	$504.13 million	-$219.84 million	-1.28
GrafTech International Competitors	$2.38 billion	$142.37 million	21.19

GrafTech International’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than GrafTech International. GrafTech International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.8% of GrafTech International shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.4% of shares of all “Electrical Equipment” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of GrafTech International shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 14.9% of shares of all “Electrical Equipment” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

GrafTech International has a beta of 1.8, meaning that its stock price is 80% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GrafTech International’s peers have a beta of -20.43, meaning that their average stock price is 2,143% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares GrafTech International and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GrafTech International	-38.43%	N/A	-18.39%
GrafTech International Competitors	-354.39%	-45.12%	-7.92%

Summary

GrafTech International peers beat GrafTech International on 8 of the 12 factors compared.

GrafTech International Company Profile

GrafTech International Ltd. research, develops, manufactures, and sells graphite and carbon-based solutions worldwide. The company offers graphite electrodes to produce electric arc furnace steel and other ferrous and non-ferrous metals; and petroleum needle coke, a crystalline form of carbon used in the production of graphite electrodes and synthetic graphite. It sells its products primarily through direct sales force, independent sales representatives, and distributors. GrafTech International Ltd. was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Brooklyn Heights, Ohio.